Georgia Tech has partnered with MOOC provider Udacity and AT&T to offer the program. The course content will be delivered entirely online through the Udacity platform, with enhanced support services for students who are enrolled in the degree program, and AT&T is providing financial support. Enrollment in the pilot program will be limited to a few hundred students recruited from AT&T and Georgia Tech corporate affiliates.

The OMS CS courses will be available for free to anybody, but only those students admitted to the Georgia Tech degree program will receive credit for the courses. Students enrolled in the degree program will pay tuition based either on individual courses or the entire program. Georgia Tech estimated tuition for the entire degree program will cost less than $7,000. The university and Udacity also plan to offer a separate credential for students who complete the courses successfully but don't qualify for full graduate standing in the program.

According to information released by Georgia Tech, the OMS CS program is intended to increase accessibility to and lower the cost of the advanced degree program to help "address the nation's growing shortage of qualified workers in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields.

"Because of this collaboration, anyone with a broadband connection will have access to some of the finest computer science instruction in the world," said Randall Stephenson, chairman and CEO of AT&T, in a prepared statement. "We believe that high-quality and 100 percent online degrees can be on par with degrees received in traditional on-campus settings, and that this program could be a blueprint for helping the United States address the shortage of people with STEM degrees, as well as exponentially expand access to computer science education for students around the world."

Further information about the Online Master of Science in Computer Science degree program can be found on Georgia Tech's site.

About the Author

Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at leilameyer@gmail.com.